Acoustic liners are used in fluid handling ducts to attenuate undesirable noise associated with a stream of fluid flowing through the duct. Examples of such ducts include the inlet and exhaust system ducts of gas turbine aircraft engines. A typical acoustic liner includes a back sheet and a face sheet spaced from the back sheet to define an inter-sheet compartment. The liner is positioned along the duct wall with the face sheet extending approximately parallel to the direction of fluid flow through the duct. The inter-sheet compartment serves as a resonator chamber for attenuating noise. Walls may extend between the sheets to subdivide the compartment into multiple smaller resonator chambers. A set of holes or necks perforates the face sheet to establish communication between the chamber (or chambers) and the fluid stream. One well known relationship that describes the noise frequency that a resonator will attenuate is:f=(c/2π)[AN/(VC LN)]0.5where c is the local speed of sound, AN is the cross sectional area of the neck leading to a chamber (or the aggregate area of multiple necks leading to a chamber) VC is the volume of the chamber and LN is the length of the neck. In a typical turbine engine acoustic liner, the face sheet is made of sheet stock. Accordingly, LN is the thickness of the sheet.
When the acoustic liner is used in a hot environment, for example to line an afterburner duct, it may be desirable to cool the liner to extend its useful life. Cooling may be accomplished by supplying coolant, usually relatively cool air, to the resonator chambers and allowing the coolant to flow through the chambers and discharge through the resonator necks. However at the flow rates typically required for satisfactory cooling, the coolant discharging through the resonator necks degrades the liner's acoustic admittance, which is a measure of its ability to admit acoustic disturbances into the resonator chambers.
Even if cooling is not required, it may be necessary to tune a resonator chamber to attenuate low frequency noise. A resonator can be tuned to a low frequency by increasing VC or LN or by decreasing AN. For aircraft engine applications, increasing VC may not be an option due to space constraints. Decreasing AN also may not always be an option. This is partly because decreasing AN reduces the overall porosity of the liner, which directly diminishes the acoustic admittance. Moreover, if the liner is cooled, the resonator necks also serve as coolant passages to cool the face sheet. Decreasing the size or quantity of the resonator necks/coolant passages could therefore compromise the durability of the liner. Accordingly, increasing LN may be the most viable option for tuning a resonator chamber to attenuate low frequency noise.